Internship in Texas Reinforces Classroom Experiences

Maria Scacchitti ’18 is an English and psychology double major at Lebanon Valley College and shares her first-hand internship experience.

 

Approximately 70 percent of students in the LVC Psychology Department engage in an out-of-school internship each year. Many students fulfill this requirement locally, but I took my knowledge all the way to Austin, Texas.

As the spring semester of 2016 came to a close, my five-week summer internship at Kenmar Residential Services began. Founded in 1986, Kenmar Residential Services Inc., is a well-established corporation in central Texas dedicated to providing a variety of services and living options for those with a wide range of physical, developmental, and intellectual disabilities. The goal of Kenmar is to provide consumers with the skills needed to gain personal independence, protect their personal dignity, and become positive providers to society.

Personally, this was the first time I would be actually work in my field of study. As I boarded the plane, I asked myself, “Am I ready, am I truly prepared for this?”

Though I was pretty nervous, it was a relief that the job training came easy to me. I was able to assure myself that I was indeed ready to work in the real world and that Lebanon Valley had prepared me well.

During my five weeks at Kenmar, I was given the opportunity to work with different aspects of disability services, which was much more than I ever anticipated. I learned to evaluate patient charts and paperwork in order to prepare them for company audits and client reevaluations. I was also able to read over psychological evaluations from certified clinical psychologists, giving me a feel of what is entailed during a routine evaluation. I enjoyed reading these evaluations the most because they were practical applications of what I have learned in the classroom. 

Along with organizing charts, I spent a lot of time prepping Medicaid applications by updating consumer diagnostic information. I also input ICAP (Inventory for Client and Agency Planning) scores onto the computer systems, enabling QIDPs (Qualified Intellectual Disabilities Professionals) and quality assurance managers to have the consumer’s IDD (intellectual and developmental disability) levels and scores on hand.

While I very much enjoyed my days off, basking in the hot Texas sun, I was most impressed by how much of my work related to topics covered in the classroom. Thanks to my LVC psychology professors, I was able to get the most out of my internship experience.